The Witcher is a hit. Lauren Hissrich’s adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s fantasy novels has clearly caught on, and fans are eager to seeing the continuing adventures of Geralt of Rivia, Yennefer of Vengerberg, and the Princess Cirilla, just as soon as Netflix can produce them.
Helping matters: “Toss A Coin To Your Witcher,” an in-universe song that, put simply, slaps. Written by the bard Jaskier (Joey Batey), the song recounts the events of the second episode, where Geralt and Jaskier are held prisoner by a few elves living in the hills. Sure, the song doesn’t really accurately reflect what happened, but it makes Geralt famous, and Batey has a great voice, so let’s just go with it.
And go with it people have, creating lots of covers since the show dropped last month. You’ve got your heavy metal cover…
…your Russian choir cover…
…your acoustic version, and so on.
But Hissrich herself sees the song a little differently. “The idea of the song is: Who creates the narrative, and who controls the narrative?” she told Business Insider. “It’s something we see in our world all the time in the media. Whoever’s telling the story has the power. Jaskier has the power to tell the story that actually happened or tell the story that makes the Witcher seem like the hero and change his journey for the rest of the season.”
"It’s a catchy song, but if you step back and listen to the lyrics, it’s horrific. What it’s saying is: I’m going to change how history sees this entire event just because I’ve written a catchy song."
Basically, the song portrays the elves and sylvan Geralt and Jaskier encountered as the aggressors, when Geralt actually had a lot of sympathy with them over how humans had displaced them from their lands. So should we reconsider how we think about the song? If we enjoy it, do we also have to take responsibility for our complicity in the twisting of history?
I dunno. Here are s’more covers while you think about it:
The Witcher season 2 airs…2021-ish?
To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.
Watch Game of Thrones for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels